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Saturday, August 27, 2016

Needle Starting to Move on Opportunity Gap

A truly compelling article from two researchers on what is happening with closing the opportunity gap. (bold mine)

The enormous gap in academic performance between high- and low-income
children has begun to narrow. Children entering kindergarten today are
more equally prepared than they were in the late 1990s.

From 1998 to 2010, the school readiness gap narrowed by 10 percent in
math and 16 percent in reading. The gaps that remain are still vast. But
even this modest improvement represents a sharp reversal of the trend over the preceding decades.

It’s worth noting that the gap in school readiness narrowed because of
relatively rapid improvements in the skills of low-income children, not
because the skills of children from high-income families declined. How long lasting are these results?

These
improvements appear to persist at least into fourth grade. Data from
the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that by 2015, when
those kindergartners were in fourth grade, their math and reading skills
were roughly two-thirds of a grade level higher than those of their
counterparts 12 years earlier. This was true for children of all racial
and ethnic groups and for poor and nonpoor children alike.

The biggest question is, of course, why?

One possibility is that school readiness gaps have narrowed because it is
easier now for poor families to find high-quality, publicly funded
preschool programs for their children. Today 29 percent of 4-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded preschools, up from 14 percent in 2002.

It may be changes in children’s homes that have mattered most. Tracking the experiences of young children over time, we found
that both rich and poor children today have more books and read with
their parents more often than they did in the ’90s. They are far more
likely to have computers, internet access and computer games focused on
reading and math skills. Their parents are more likely to spend time
with them, taking them to the library or doing activities at home.

But...

But here’s the puzzle: In many ways, the lives of rich and poor parents
haven’t become more equal — far from it. Among families with school-age
children, income inequality grew by roughly 10 percent from 1998 to
2010; economic segregation grew by 20 percent. How is it that the school readiness gap is nonetheless narrowing?

What it may be is one basic idea - early engagement with babies and toddlers matters.

We suspect that in part this happened because of the widespread
diffusion of a single powerful idea: that the first few years of a
child’s life are the most consequential for cognitive development.

Why are low-income families now adopting these parenting practices? It
may be partly a result of public information campaigns like Reach Out and Read, the Too Small to Fail initiative and local efforts in cities like Providence,
R.I., which aim to teach parents simple ways to help their children
build the vocabulary and cognitive skills that form a foundation for
success in school.

Still...

As encouraging as this new evidence is, we have a long way to go. Poor
children still enter kindergarten nearly a year behind their richer
peers. Even if school readiness gaps continue to narrow at the rate they
did between 1998 and 2010, it would take another 60 to 110 years for
them to be completely eliminated.

Changes in parenting are not going to be sufficient to sustain or speed
this progress, although more paid leave would help. Economic inequality
still constrains poor children’s horizons. Low-income and middle-class
parents still struggle to find affordable, high-quality preschools. The
elementary, middle and high schools that rich and poor students attend
differ markedly in resources and quality.

One big takeaway - attention ed reformers:

If we don’t do something about these larger problems, the progress we
have made toward equality in early childhood may prove only a brief
respite from ever-widening educational inequality. “Goodnight Moon,” for
all its charm and power, is no substitute for comprehensive social
policy.

Better schools and good teachers alone are not going to solve this problem. Helping parents to find new ways to support their child's learning is not the only thing that needs to happen.

It's that "comprehensive social policy" that needs to be happening, in parallel with good education. No one is saying, "Solve poverty first." But the two things go hand and hand.

This is one of issues for McCleary funding. It cannot come on the backs of social/health services. Those are the very services that help provide the underlying foundation so that low-income children can do better in life and in school. I hope the Legislature doesn't even bring up cuts in that direction at all but if they do, I, for one, will oppose them.

6 comments:

Remember, in Seattle the "top" isn't what they think they are (since the testing is invalid), and the "bottom" (you actually wrote that, didn't you?) is comprised of actual students who in some cases should have the HCC designation that many of yours were given by bias.

This information shows that the brain is plastic, and ability is ever-changing, particularly in the early years.

It is good to point out the HCC "designation" because that's all you get from inclusion in HCC. That all important 'designation". Differentiated teaching - nah; More depth - nah; Better teachers - no, our experience was that the HCC teachers were worse in some cases (not all) because some took advantage of the fact that the students would learn on their own regardless of the classroom experience (HIMS math anyone?). Better curriculum - please...the Gen Ed classes had better math curriculum when we were in elementary school due to a waiver allowing our school to ditch the crappy SPS math curriculum. That is why so many of our elementary students tested into HCC...because of the improved math curriculum at our gen ed school! Smaller classes - nah, the HCC classes are generally bigger. Have a great time with that "designation". You've really picked an important issue to help underrepresented students - NOT.

We joined and have continued along the HCC pathway solely because the HCC pathway school was in a more convenient location than our neighborhood school. This is another thing the SPS is rigidly against: allowing students to attend schools that are convenient for 2 parents who work.

That said - we have met some amazing kids (the cohort everyone talks about). However, I feel a sick feeling in my stomach regarding reaching out to underrepresented kids to join a program that will offer them little to nothing with respect to curriculum improvement. This is especially significant for kids that do not get homework support at home. Believe me - we had better learning opportunities in our gen ed class - mainly because of activism on the part of parents to reject the namby-pamby SPS-approved curriculum.

Education Acroynms

Advanced Learning - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.

ALO - Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program

AP - Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.

APP - Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.

ASB - Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.

AYP - Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.

BEX - Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).

BLT - Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.

BTA - Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.

CAICEE - Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.

CSIP - Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.

EOC - End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduationESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.

e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.

FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy

FRL - Free and reduced lunch.

FTE - Full Time Equivalent

FY - Fiscal Year

Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).

HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation

HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law

IA - Instructional Assistant

IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.

IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education

MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.

MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration